I forgot to tell you ....

Saturday, 09 April 2011 08:18

I found Eynsham Wharf! Whilst we were moored over the last few days I decided to explore and see whether I could find the wharf. I knew from my research that it was on the "Wharf Stream" - funny that, I would never have guessed!

Eynsham Lock, looking upstream

Access to the Wharf Stream for walkers is over Eynsham Lock and then the weir.

The stream enters the Thames below Eynsham Lock and there is a circular walk. Now I have to take things very gently if I go for a walk - too far and too fast and I am a gonner! But the following may interest you.

The Wharf Stream from the footbridge over it

The Stream winds a fair bit and it is difficult to imagine that it was once used by boats filled with cargo such as coal, corn, salt and stone. A trade link from Eynsham to Oxford and London, via the River Thames.

Further up the Stream

Near the wharf there is now a large factory and the path runs alongside - it is almost as if you are trespassing on the factory land, especially as there are picnic tables and daffodils and a green sward!

Wharf Stream near the factory

The Wharf is alongside the Talbot Inn - there is really nothing much to see now and imagination has to come into play to see the boats loaded with stone that was to be used for the Oxford Colleges.

Eynsham Wharf

The Talbot has been a pub since 1774, but it was once the Wharf building and there has been a building here since 1376. The stream was always narrow, shallow and difficult to navigate but when the Oxford Canal Company (OCC) saw how profitable the trade was they installed their own Wharfinger at the Wharf in 1792. Then improvements were made to the Stream. A weir was built about 200 yards upstream from the confluence with the Thames (about where the footbridge is now).

The footbridge (site of old weir) and water level gauge

This enabled the raising of water level, but barges and narrowboats could still wait for 5 hours before the depth was enough for passage. The OCC became greedy and in the 1800s banned coal from landing at the Wharf if it had been carried by any other canal. Any Thames and Severn Canal coal had to be landed on the banks of the Thames and carried across the fields. Later the Cassington Wharf took T and S coal, but the OCC leased that one too and the T and S decline began, unable to compete with the more powerful and profitable OCC.

Looking back from the road bridge to the Wharf

By 1870 Cassington Wharf was disused although Eynsham continued until 1925 - the OCC operated it for 101 years. They also bought the Talbot - and owned it until nationalisation in 1948 - an early example of company diversification!